I am very reassured by the ratings of the first Leaders' Debate.  

It was a bit over one million, which is about the same as the last election and down a bit on the 2017 debate between Bill English and Jacinda Ardern. 

I am reassured because engagement is critical and you could argue never more critical than currently, given the state of the country. 

Just because the result is a forgone conclusion doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be involved. 

If you want to talk numbers, look at the Ipsos issues poll. 

It’s a disaster for Labour. They have collapsed in virtually every issue that is important to us, I'll give the numbers later, but essentially, who do you trust more on any given issue? The answer is now National. 

Also never forget the direction poll: is the country going in the right direction? The 63 % that say no is the real key to the election. Governments that deliver that number don’t get three more years. 

But along with the podcast numbers I gave you the other day, where this shows podcast has generated over a million downloads for the first time.  

But not just for us, but for any podcast in this country, that shows we are into this thing, despite the fact it's not really a contest. 

In a couple of weeks the debate will shift, it’ll be about turn out.  

Labour will have trouble with apathy. People can't be bothered turning out for losers.  

But National will worry about people assuming it's over and therefore not voting.  

Although I would argue those days are gone given early voting basically gives you no excuse not to participate. 

A million people reminds us that elections are important, and politics, for all you want to say about it, still galvanises us. 

You don’t get a million people for anything anymore, apart from the All Blacks in World Cup, possibly the warriors in the final, and elections. 

As segregated and busy as we may be, who runs the country and how they run it still matters to the vast majority of us, and that is a good thing. 

They talk about teaching civics in schools, the best civics lesson you'll ever get is watching this campaign: studying what they say, what they promise, and what their record is. 

 And once you have done that, exercising your democratic duty. 

 It still thrills me that voting here is voluntary yet we still get such a good turn out 

A million plus people. 

Whether its viewership or downloads, numbers don’t lie. 

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